DETERMINATION OF CARBON, NITROGEN AND OXYGEN IN SILICON BY ACTIVATION ANALYSIS,

Abstract

Methods of determining impurities in silicon by activation analysis are reviewed. Impurities considered are carbon, nitrogen and oxygen with concentrations in the parts-per-million range. Non destructive techniques only are considered. Prompt reactions are unsuitable for these elements in the specified concentration range because the surfaces of the silicon samples will be contaminated by adsorption of impurities from the air. Reaction products should be sufficiently long lived to allow removal of adsorbed impurities between irradiation and measurement. Slow neutron and gamma irradiations lead to excessive matrix activation and therefore are not applicable. The same holds for irradiation with tritons obtained from the reaction Li6(n,alpha)t. Fast neutron activation yields reaction products with too short a mean life. The successful application of charged particle activation has been described in the literature; sensitivities below 1 ppm have been reported. These publications are reviewed. Methods for measuring positron activities in the presence of a gamma-ray background are described. A weighted least-squares-fit procedure for analysing composite decay curves is given. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1967
Accession Number
AD0654685

Entities

People

  • Gunter H. R. Kegel

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Adsorption
  • Charged Particles
  • Composite Materials
  • Elementary Fermions
  • Elementary Particles
  • Elements
  • Fast Neutrons
  • Fermions
  • Gamma Rays
  • Impurities
  • Literature
  • Measurement
  • Neutron Activation
  • Neutrons
  • Nitrogen
  • Positrons
  • Thermal Neutrons

Readers

  • Electrochemical Engineering/ Fuel Cell Technologies
  • Nuclear and Radiation Engineering.
  • Solar Physics